


A Glimpse at Freedom

by RingingSilence



Category: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
Genre: AU, Kamina Attempts to Flirt, Mild Language, One non-consensual kiss, Pre-Relationship, Simon and Nia are Precious Children, Yoko Littner is a Tough Cookie, it's barely anything, slight blood warning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-15
Updated: 2020-02-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:41:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22726336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RingingSilence/pseuds/RingingSilence
Summary: Kamina fully expected the evening to be a boring mix of socializing with the other elites and trying to court Ms. Teppelin.He did not expect to get dragged into helping her, a kid in over his head, and a sexy bounty hunter escape.Does it count as kidnapping if the girl is in on it?
Relationships: Pre-Kamina/Yoko Littner, Simon/Nia Teppelin
Kudos: 15





	A Glimpse at Freedom

Kamina stood tall and proud and desperately tried to disguise just how utterly bored he was. His uncle had been hammering into him all week how important this event was for the Giha Corporation, how he was supposed to be representing the company that his parents built and that he’s going to inherit one day. Most importantly though, he was supposed to be pulling out all the stops to win over Ms. Nia Teppelin, the heiress of the Teppelin Foundation and daughter of the biggest business mogul in the country. The man was a big enough deal he was universally known as Lord Genome. He had the assets of a small country, was notoriously difficult to please and his daughter happened to have just had her 18th birthday, making her available to anyone who could charm her and her father into a business merger. 

Kamina didn’t feel particularly charming at the moment however, standing beside his uncle in a stiff suit and a tie that felt like a noose around his neck.

He caught glimpses of Nia’s fairy-like cloud of white hair as she floated through the gathered corporate chairmen like a swan, like the princess she was treated like. She never approached him or his uncle though which made it a little hard to woo her. Instead, Kamina smiled and nodded and shook hands while keeping mental tabs on where she happened to be and sweated in a suit that probably costed more than most cars. 

He grunted when his uncle jabbed him in the ribs. “What are you waiting for? Go talk to her!”

The feeling of the man’s eyes on the back of his neck kept him from slouching as he finally stepped away, knees cracking in complaint of how long he’d been forced to stand and look pretty. Slipping through the sea of suits, he bemoaned having to slick back his hair for the event instead of keeping it in his usual tall spikes. Without them he didn’t feel himself. He just felt like a boring puppet, dressed up to look like the rest of the uppity jokers in the glass-walled top-floor office this stuck-up party was happening in. It almost hurt to smile, but he pulled together the closest one he could to ‘charming’ and reached out to get Ms. Teppelin’s attention.

He staggered as someone shoved past him to reach her first. 

As awful as the suit felt, Kamina was at least sure that it looked better on him than what his rival was wearing. The kid, because there was no way the newcomer was older than eighteen himself, wore an ill-fitting black tux. Fabric pooled around his ankles and elbows, bunched up on his shoulders and from the glimpse Kamina caught as he passed his tie wasn’t even straight. He looked ridiculous but the moment he touched Ms. Teppelin’s shoulder and she turned her whole being lit up and she threw her arms around his neck with a soft laugh. Kamina froze, unsure of what to do because even if he’d wanted to he clearly wasn’t going to be stealing her attention any time soon. 

He jumped as a firm hand closed on his elbow. Looking down, he was captured by warm amber eyes. The woman they belonged to, a pretty young thing with long red hair who somehow made her thick-rimmed glasses seem sexy, gave his arm a firm tug. “Let’s give those two a minute.”

She pulled him away until the pair vanished from view, only stopping when they found a large enough space in the crowd for her to place his hand on her hips so they could start dancing. He allowed it, finding that his charm-the-princess smile was coming much more easily. This chick was much more his style. “So, what brings you to a stuffy event like this?”

“Oh, you know, checking out the cute rich boys.” She batted her eyes at him. “What company are you here with?”

His smile turned sour. “Giha. My uncle wants me to get an in with Lord Genome.”

Her eyes kept darting past his shoulder. When he turned to look she turned him back to face her. “Ah, corporate matchmaking. Looking to woo the big man’s daughter like the rest of the guys, huh?”

Her fingers were hot against his cheek, holding his face firmly. He found he didn’t mind it. “Not really. It’s what my uncle wants me to do but she’s not really my type. Besides, I doubt I could compete with a guy who makes her smile like that.”

She’d been looking over his shoulder again but at that her gaze snapped back to him. She almost looked startled. “Oh?”

“Enough about me.” He gave her his best smolder. “I haven’t seen you at any of the other events. Don’t tell me a lady as fine as you is actually another stuck-up board chairman.”

She grinned. “As if. Can’t a lady come to a party just to have fun?”

“If you want fun this is the last place to find it.”

She looked over his shoulder again and he let her turn their dance. As much of her attention was on whatever was going on behind him, her brilliant eyes weren’t just passing over him anymore. “You don’t really fit in with this crowd, do you?”

He laughed. “As if. Running a company of brown-nosers and toadies is the last thing I want to do with my life, but it was my parents’ business and my uncle would rather let someone else be the face while he gets all the rewards so my hands are tied.”

She tilted her head, her gleaming red hair trailing over her shoulder as she blinked up at him behind those glasses. “What would you rather be doing?”

He lowered his voice, almost unwilling to say it out loud among all of the executives and trust-owners. “I always wanted to be a fireman, or a police officer or something. Someone who actually does something. A hero of the people, you know?”

She blinked, mouth turning up at the corner in a surprised little half-smile. “…Huh.”

Someone shoved by them, nearly knocking him into her and he turned with a glower. “Watch it, buddy! Can’t you see we’re--?”

The bodyguard barely spared him a glance before pushing on through the throng of partygoers. Kamina saw another guard circling the edge of the room, speaking into his radio.  
“What do you think that’s--?” He turned back but the lady was no longer there. He caught just a hint of her red hair sweeping between black and silver suits and he didn’t even pause to question what he was doing before following her. She reached the hallway first and he hung back to listen as a male voice greeted her.

“They’ve already noticed Nia’s gone. What are we going to do?”

“Stay calm,” the lady said. “We just need to find a way back to the ground floor. Ms. Teppelin, do you—“

“Hey, you there,” a gruff voice shouted. Kamina poked his head around the corner in time to see his lady take off running, followed closely by the boy in the ill-fitting suit and Ms. Teppelin. Another guard rounded the corner a second later, still shouting as he chased after them and Kamina jumped back before he could be spotted. The hallway they were taking would lead past a set of closed conference rooms. They’d get cornered at the end of the corridor unless—

He slipped back into the party, ignoring the grumbles of people he pushed past on his way to the hallway that would let him catch up. 

Just as he predicted, he reached them just as they passed the last of the conference rooms. He tugged his visitor’s pass out of his shirt so he could slide it through the digital lock on one of the doors and threw it open. “Come on, get in!”

The amber-eyed lady stared at him in shock but the boy took Ms. Teppelin’s hand and raced inside. The lady gave him one last suspicious look and followed and Kamina brought up the rear to close the door behind them. The conference room was glass-walled, but posters and charts and white boards lined the walls at floor-level and the four of them crouched down to hide behind them as the sounds of the guards came closer. Ms. Teppelin squeaked and the boy pulled her close, glaring up at the windows. None of them moved as the guards clacked past, reaching the end of the hallway. 

“Where’d they go?”

“Maybe they headed back into the party. Come on.”

The sound of hard-soled boots clacked back away. Ms. Teppelin let out a soft sigh of relief. The lady eased herself up enough to peek over the barrier and after a moment she stood up. “They’re gone. Come on.”

Kamina unlocked the door again for them and they crept back out into the hallway. Before they could take off running again, he reached out and caught the lady’s hand. “This way, come on!”

She gave him a bewildered look but let him pull her along and her companions stayed close behind them as he led the party to one of the secretary elevators. With a wave of his ID it slid open with a cheerful chime. Ms. Teppelin and the boy darted in first and their chaperone was right behind them but before Kamina could hold the card up to the interior scanner and hit their floor a shout rang through the hallway behind them. 

“There’s nowhere left to run!”

There wasn’t time. If the guards saw the doors closing they’d just alert security on whatever level they headed to. Unless…

He looped his arm around the scarlet lady’s waist and pushed her up against the wall of the elevator, still within sight of the hallway but close enough he could reach out with his other hand past her to hand the kid his ID. “Sorry about this.”

Just as the first guard came around the corner he ducked his head and kissed her. She immediately bit him, but he heard the guards stumbling to a halt on the mirror-polished floor. He looked up with what he hoped seemed like an impatient scowl. “What’s a guy got to do to get some privacy around here?”

A few of the guards were red-faced as they looked anywhere but at him but the sterner of the group kept coming. “Is there anyone else in the elevator with you, sir?”

The doors finally, mercifully, started to slide closed. 

“No! Now get lost!” He leaned back in, waiting for them to click shut before stepping back from the lady and dabbing at his bleeding lip. “Damn, that’ll teach me to warn a lady first.” He smiled up at his companions. “Is everyone here and accounted for ‘cause I don’t think that’ll work more than once.”

All three of the other occupants stared at him, red-faced and wide-eyed. The lady of the group broke the awkward silence with a little huff and a wary scowl. “Why are you helping us?”

“You’re saving Ms. Teppelin, aren’t you?”

“Maybe we’re kidnapping her.”

He jabbed a thumb at the princess where she was still tucked into the boy’s side. “No one looks that happy to be kidnapped. Besides, I’ve been to a bunch of these parties and no one’s ever made her smile the way that kid does.”

Ms. Teppelin hugged onto the kid’s arm and beamed at him. “Thank you for your assistance!”

The elevator chimed again to announce they had reached the first floor. Kamina turned, waiting for the doors to open and only caught a blur of red from the corner of his eye before something bashed into the back of his head. Everything became hazy as he collapsed to the cold tiled floor, getting a blurry impression of the elevator doors opening and the trio hurrying out. A warm hand tilted his face up and he saw the fiery amber of the lady’s eyes. 

“Sorry about this, but we can’t let you slow us down.” Her face slid out of his line of sight and he felt something soft press against his cheek before he was dropped again and the world slid away. 

“…Kamina. Hey, kid!”

The familiar grating voice of his uncle pounded in his head. With a groan he pushed himself up and gingerly rubbed at his scalp. “Keep it down, I hear you.” 

“Oh yeah? Then maybe you can tell these fine gentlemen what the hell happened here!”

Kamina squinted through the bright overhead lights. As the haze cleared he realized he was sitting in an elevator and looming behind his uncle were two of the burliest bodyguards he’d ever seen. Everything came back to him in a flash. “Right, the party…”

“You were spotted getting in with a woman,” one of the guards rumbled. 

Kamina almost laughed. “Oh yeah, the red chick…Yeah, I was trying to sneak us off somewhere quiet and out of nowhere she attacked me. I don’t remember a thing after that.”  
“Did she say anything to you?”

He rubbed the sore spot again. “’Can’t think of anything. She said she was looking for a good time. and that’s about it.”

“And you’re sure that you were the only ones in this elevator?”

“Come on, who’d invite other people to watch them enjoying a fine gal’s company?”

His uncle gave him a look that clearly said they’d have words later, but the guards at least looked like they were losing interest in him. “We believe that was the bounty hunter Yoko Littner. You’re lucky to be alive, young man.”

“Bounty hunter…” That explained how she took him out so fast, at least. “What the hell was a bounty hunter doing here?”

“She helped one of her associates kidnap Lord Genome’s daughter. These are dangerous people, son. If you have any information that could help us find them before any harm can come to Ms. Teppelin…”

“Sorry, I’ve got nothing.” 

The guards stepped back out into the hallway and Kamina let his uncle haul him to his feet. The man’s grip on his arm was bruising and when he spoke it was through gritted teeth. “That’ll teach you not to break from the plan next time.”

As he was dragged after him they passed a mass of dark suit caught Kamina’s attention. Lord Genome himself stood against the wall outside the elevator. As they passed, their gazes met and pencil-thin brows pulled lower over his eerily red eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> Not sure if I'll ever do anything with this, but it was fun :'D There are only just over 200 fics from this fandom on this site and I just want it to get more love.


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